Mark Walsh is a contributing writer to Education Week. He has covered legal issues in education for more than two decades. He writes about school-related cases in the U.S. Supreme Court and in lower courts.

The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday agreed to decide whether a private school teacher involved in secular and religious instruction falls under a widely recognized exception to employment-discrimination laws for ministers and other church leaders.

Over a vigorous dissent by one judge, a full federal appeals court on Monday refused to reconsider a panel's decision that upheld a Tennessee school district's prohibition on any student display of a Confederate flag.

A federal appeals court has upheld damages awards to two Illinois students who were barred by school officials from wearing T-shirts that said "Be Happy, Not Gay" to protest a day meant to promote gay tolerance.